Heart-Stopping Action

The oldest two have been in swim lessons for six days now. I’m not sure what I envisioned. I have memories of taking swim lessons as a child…of being the best in the group, of being old enough to think the teacher was flirting with me when he asked me if I was interested in joining the swim team (yeah…flirting with a pre-teen, I’m sure -ha!). I remember being on the swim team and alternating between loving it and hating it, depending on the coach, the fellow swimmers, and my emotional state (by this time being a teenager). But as an adult, I am grateful for those years, because it continues to be the only exercise that I can do without my joints screaming in protest and threatening to quit working altogether if I try even one more bicep curl. Plus, I wanted the children to have at least some ability of saving themselves – and of fitting in when they are with other children.

They haven’t been able to take before because we always have babies…I can’t get in the mommy-and-me class with them because I also have a baby. Don’t get me wrong – my babies love the water. But they love it so much that they want to put their faces in it and don’t understand why they come up coughing. Every time. So while I could pop a baby in the sling and work with the two-year-old, I wimped out and just waited. The result has been that I now have a 6 ½ and 5 year old who don’t really know how to swim. Sure, the 6yo can jump in and swim to the side. But nothing really to impress the friends when we are trying to get that socialization time in that everyone else seems to worry about so much.

So anyway, they’re in swim lessons. The typical dunk-the-kid-under-water routine. A little kickboard action. Some floating. They love it. Their favorite parts? Free time. Gotta love it. Let’s spend money on swim lessons so that you can enjoy free time. But I do see them improving. At the start of class, Olivia could get 2-3 rings off the pool floor at a time before coming up sputtering and gasping. Now she gets 10 at a time and comes up confident and shining. The secret? A little good-natured completion. The one with the most gets to jump off the diving board first. Eeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!! Stop the music – they get to do WHAT first? Sure, I’ve see the toddlers being hung by their arms and dropped into the waiting arms of the lifeguards – barely getting their faces wet. But how are they going to catch the bigger kids? (and by bigger, I mean…there are some bigger kids in the class). I just smile and wave and hold in my nervousness. Because that’s what moms do, right? Cheer on the outside and cringe on the inside? All the while, looking and searching and finding everything in place and no reason to call off the exciting leap into the twelve-foot-deep waters.

So Nate goes first (his class). I just knew that he’d stand at the end and be the one the lifeguard had to drag to the end, prying off his arms and legs and ending up with both of them falling head first into the depths of the pool – that my child would be the “don’t do this” example for the rest of the class. Ummmmm….no. Nate walked to the end, gave a smile and stepped off into the air, then water over his head, and back up without so much as one sputter. Just a swipe of his hand over his eyes and he dogpaddled to the side of the pool. Sure – he did it. But his standard is do it once and pass on the next turn. Nope. He did it again. Wow. I am so stinking proud of him! He has matured so much in the last few months…since April, I guess. I asked him how he felt and if he wanted to do it. He said, “They made us do it – but I am glad I did it without crying.” Me too. Glad that someone else’s child was the one with legs wrapped around the legs, arms around the arms and the child’s mother hollering, “Just throw her in!”

Olivia’s class almost didn’t get a shot – the teachers forgot. Not the children, though. They made sure to remind them! Olivia was supposed to go first, but thankfully didn’t make a fuss when they forgot. Three went ahead of her…the lifeguard dropping them into the water, into the waiting arms of the lifeguard. Olivia gets to the end of the board and rather than being dropped in – she jumps! Definitely no shyness there. Water all over the lifeguard’s face and surprised each one of them.nHer disappointment was that they only got to have one turn.

So, my heart only had to stop three times today. I guess that’s not too bad. Of course, the day is not over and we still have ball games and gymnastics to go to. Plenty of heart-stopping action left in the day!